Russian Rights Group Doesn't Want Chechens To Probe Attack

The leader of a prominent Russian human rights group whose office was trashed by unknown individuals in Grozny does not want Chechen authorities to investigate the incident.

Igor Kalyapin, the chief of the NGO Committee Against Torture (KPP), said at a session of Russia's Presidential Council for Human Rights on June 4 that the doesn’t trust Chechen authorities and wants the incident to be investigated by officials from at least the regional level of the North Caucasus.

A violent gang attacked the KPP's Grozny office on June 3, forcing its employees to flee from the windows of their second-floor offices.

Kalyapin said Grozny police did not answer his phone calls for two hours while the group's car and offices were destroyed.

The state-owned Grozny television station described the incident as a protest of "civil organizations and representatives of the civil society" against what they described as the "politicizing" of the NGO's work.

Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov said police were investigating the incident and that any unlawful actions will be punished.